1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a compound electronic apparatus and, more particularly, to a compound electronic apparatus having a general personal computer function and a facsimile function.
2. Related Background Art
In recent years, electronic techniques have developed remarkably. Particularly in the personal computer field, both the hardware and the software which operates the hardware have been improved.
In general, it is well known that a variety of software products which are operated by a personal computer have become widely available. Therefore, when an ordinary person considers purchasing a personal computer, he often will first consider the number of software products which can be operated by the personal computer (or by the operating system thereof).
For the software manufacturer, it is advantageous to manufacture software which can be operated by a personal computer (or by the operating system thereof) that is widely available and that has a large market share.
An apparatus constructed by combining both a personal computer and a facsimile apparatus will now be considered.
An explanation of the personal computer is omitted here. To realize the facsimile function, a novel construction comprising a reading section to read a document, a printing section to print the received image, a line, and a line controller to connect with the line, etc. are necessary.
The operating system, which is operated by the personal computer (electronic apparatus) to which such a facsimile construction to be controlled is newly added, and results in a unique system. Therefore, the software of, for example, a word processor or the like which is operated by the above apparatus must also be independently developed. There is a problem such that a great amount of the software resources widely commercially available cannot be utilized apart from the functions that they already perform.